ParadoxTale
by Lizzmar
Summary: Imagine if Undertale hadn't always been Undertale. If it had been made that way by innumerable strange occurances in time. That the story was even more complex than it currently is now. Follow the original Chara, Frisk, and Sans as time slowly develops into the timeline we all know and love. (Rated T because I'm paranoid) (Female!Frisk and Female!Chara)
1. Prologue

**A/N: Welcome, and I hope you all enjoy this little story. First and foremost, this is my first fanfiction in a long time, so if any mistakes come up, don't be scared to correct me~ Second, if any one know any puns, could you send them in, I'm horrible at puns and I want an armory of puns for Sans in later chapters. Last but not least, this fanfiction will not be anything like the game at first, and this fanfiction in no way, shape, or form resembles what I think happened in game to create circumstances. I just wanted to mess with timelines a bit. ;)**

You wake up to find yourself in a pitch black Void. Only the colors of your body and your own breathing fill this Void of utter nothingness. It fills you with despair that's numbing, almost suffocating, and you're highly tempted to succumb to it.

"Calm yourself, kid." A collected, feminine, childish voice sounded across the Void. It cuts through the despair and allows you a moment to think away from the Void's suffocating nothingness. Then, as if a blindfold was removed from your eyes, a small child...floated in front of you. She has short cut brown hair, a green shirt with a yellow strip around the torso, and her eyes are almost...red. Her gaze makes you cringe, it's almost as suffocating as the void that surrounds you, and it's icy tinge freezes your very soul.

"Who are you and how did you get here?"

You quickly explain that you aren't sure how you got here, although you did die, and that your named Frisk. The strange girl's gaze doesn't change, and an uncomfortable silence ensues. You avert your gaze, but to what? Only the Void surrounds you.

"You've finally come. It took, you long enough, sister." Her tone didn't change, and your eyes quickly dart up to her in surprise. Sister? "I am here to offer my help in the journey you're about to make."

Confused, you ask her a multitude of questions. What journey? And what does she mean by sister? You wait for a reply, but none is forthcoming. Again, you ask, but with more force. The slightest of smirks form on the strange girl's face, and it's enough to give you a shiver at the nonexistent chill it gives you.

"You fell down Mt. Ebott, remember?" As if by magic, the memory of falling floats to the frontmost of your thoughts. If that was the case, you ask where you are.

"We are in the recesses of your unconscious mind. Before you ask, I am here because your soul called out for help before you fell unconscious, and it opened a mental door for me."

You ask how this is even possible in the first place.

"Because, within the world you've fallen into, those fairytales of magic aren't just mere fairytales. I've come to help you survive. Would you like my assistance? I will not ask twice." You give this a moment of thought, but before you can answer, another voice cuts through the void, and would have made you jump if you could.

"kid, don't do it, she's tryna trick you. although it doesn't seem like you remember." It was very calm, almost relaxed voice. A flash of color to your right reveal something else has become visible in the Void. You glance to your metaphorical right and find a strange sight.

It was a skeleton with a gigantic grin, wearing a blue hoody and baggy shorts and slippers. You might have found his presence comforting compared to the girl's, but situations change. Shying away, you can feel the tangible hatred eminating between the skeleton and the girl. She glared daggers at him and his eyes were just as void as the Void around them.

"do you remember anything, kid?"

"Why, happy meal, how nice of you to visit us." The sarcastic response cut through the skeleton's question towards you.

"shut it, dirty murderer. listen Frisk, the brat is trying to trick you."

You recoil from both at those words. With everything going on at once, it's hard to figure out what's going on, and how to deal with it. Especially when you were clueless as to what these two were talking about.

"How can you be so sure he's not trying to trick you? The members of the world you have fallen into are unnatural monsters." The girl spoke, looking shocked at such an accusation as 'murderer'. You watched as the skeleton's right eye burst into a cyan pupil. "Now, now, happy meal, don't want to risk damaging the timelines any further, now do we? After all, you're only here on my graces."

In your frustration, you firmly demand to know what's going on, your determination to know keeping your fear at bay. Both entities turn their gazes towards you, and you cringe, those gazes held the creatures of nightmares.

"that's right, you can't remember anything." The skeleton seemed to try and sigh quietly, although with it being one of the only sounds in the Void, it was audible to all.

"And it would be better if she didn't remember. You've killed her often enough."

"who else is just as responsible?" As the two started getting into an extremely heated argument, the Void seemed to start moving. You look around wildly, and then back at the girl and skeleton. Suddenly, it comes to you, they are the cause for the Void's weird movements. They seemed to warp the Void with their mere presence.

Then a strange dog looking skeleton head appeared in front of the girl, a cyan power building from within. The girl's eyes widened and then she was gone, blown away by the blast. You flinch and whimper as the skeleton and his blazing eye turn in your direction. Slowly, as if realizing a crucial detail, the strange blaster disappears and his cyan eye fades, replaced with two little white dots. The grin he wore became softer and not as forced, and his exhaustion became evident.

"sorry for scaring you, kid."

You re-examine the skeleton momentarily. Eventually, your wits come back, and your determination steels your nerves to ask what just happened.

"ah, I guess you of all people would deserve an explanation. at least before the reset. who knows, you might remember something this time and stop the endless repeats." He chuckled listlessly, his tone devoid of any hope. "its a skele-ton of information."

For a moment, you blink at him in surprise before you start giggling. You hadn't expected any sort of humour. It relaxed you to a degree, maybe this guy wasn't so bad. You ask him, warily, what his name is.

"sans, nice to make your acquaintance again, kid." You question if they have met before. "i assure you kid, I'll put some backbone into telling you the whole story. i'm not as much of a bonehead as it seems."

As you giggle, another presence reappears, and Sans looses the relaxed atmosphere about him. You glance to your left again, and the girl from earlier is back.

"Oh, happy meal, trying to leave me out of storytelling time~?" She asked before drifting over to your side. This action feels familiar to you, yet it terrifies you to your very core. A bone appears and knocks the girl away. It doesn't seem to harm her much.

"Is that the best you can do, happy meal~? I know you're stronger than that. I, of all people, should know that."

"jesh, and I thought you couldn't get any creepier." Sans coldly chuckled, the Void like appearance creeping back into his eyes. The nonexistent air seemed tense, and the girl sighed. Her attitude shifted, the aggressive stance disappeared, and she averted her eyes from Sans. No doubt that it confused Sans.

"...Listen, Sans, I know that with everything that has happened, neither of us will be the same. I'd like to make a simple request, though."

"and what makes me want to listen to a murderer like yourself?" This instigated the girl, her eyes flashed with murderous determination, and suddenly she was standing in front of Sans. Her shoulders shook with barely surpressed irritation. Sans jumped, eyes widening and attempting to float away from her, but she grabbed his shirt. She didn't show signs of letting him go.

"Listen to me, happy meal, the only reason you're even remotely able to project yourself into my field of control is because I want to explain to my sister everything in hopes of her making the right choice without me. I know I can't tell the whole story myself, but yet it can't be completed without me. Catch that, old pal?" Her voice was no longer her own, the girl possessed a voice that seemed to fill and command the space around you. It's full of barely surpressed anger and rage, but tinged with something else. Concern.

Sans and the girl stayed like that for a long moment. It seemed as if the two were waging a mental war, one power against the other. The Void around them warped and twisted as if to agree to your sentiment. Then it breaks as the girl slowly relaxes, smirks, and a bubbling chuckle turns into full blown demonic laughter.

"Alright, alright, I'll give." She chuckled with a wicked grin. "Only because you humour little old Chara, here, Sans." She disappeared, reappearing feet away as her red eyes glinted dangerously. Sans warily watched her with wide eyes before his expression rested into an even one, shivering slightly. You watch on in morbid fascination until both of them turn to you again. It sends a shiver down your spine.

"Alright, Frisk, Sansy and I have come to a temporary mutual agreement. First, I introduce myself as Chara." The girl's grin doesn't waver, although does it hold a tinge of warmth? "Second, I know you must be extremely confused. Just relax and listen. Him and I are going to tell you a story, despite his...reluctance to be near me. Hehe~"

You're unsure how to respond until, reluctantly, you ask for her to continue.

"Well, first, I'll start by saying that there is more than one timeline, and that you and I, or at least I used to and you still can, can manipulate them to a degree."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

First Timeline: Mistakes Are Made

Chara woke with a start as she bolted to sit up. The moment she did, a groan escaped her lips and the twelve year old fell back from the sore-like pain. Why did she do that again? Wait... _Frisk_. With a grunt, the girl practically forced herself to sit up, biting the inside of her cheek against the pain. Breath, Chara, breath. It took a moment to subside, and only then could she open her eyes and glance around for her sister.

Luckily, her sister wasn't hurt in the slightest. All Chara had to do was glance to the right to find Frisk laying at her side. A quick glance over revealed that there was no blood or marks to say Frisk wasn't even scratched. A sigh left Chara's lungs, and then the girl moved to shake her sister gently. What had happened? Chara couldn't think of what could have knocked the-oh. That was right, they had fallen into Mt. Ebott. A mountain with the rumor of having a curse. Wait, how far had they fallen?!

Chara's gaze darted up, and the sight took her breath away. Even when she couldn't properly judge distances, she knew that was a llloooonnnggg way down to fall and survive. Much less without an injury... That made it all the more important to check Frisk. Focus, Chara, focus. First would be to check Frisk over, second, figure out what where they were, third...well...

A groan changed her train of thought towards her nine year old sister.

"Frisk?" The girl jumped as her voice cracked. Chara cleared her throat and continued. "Can you hear me, sis?" Keep calm, Chara, Frisk wouldn't answer immediately. The kid was just waking up. After such a fall, Chara wouldn't be surprised if it took a moment either, considering how sore she herself had been when she had woken up. But still with no answer, Chara's panic grew.

Until Frisk slowly gave her a thumbs up, at last. Chara deflated in relief at the reassuring action. Frisk would be fine, they would both be fine.

"I'll be back, then, Frisk. I'm staying in the area, but I want to check around. Take as long as you need to recover." Chara's voice couldn't cover a degree of the worry the girl now felt. Now happened upon the second thing on her mental checklist. An attempt to calm herself. Check the area and see if anything threatened them. With a shaky sigh, the twelve year old pushed herself off the ground and actually took a good look around.

Chara noted they had landed on a bed of flowers. The yellow flowers they were on now seemed unnaturally bright in this dark room. Coincidentally, It frightened her to be in such a pitch black room. The dark had always just felt so...final, to her. She had always had a night light, even if she was embarrassed to have one at her age. Though, being afraid to move wasn't going to help her solve their dilemma...

Maybe this was all a dream? A really vivid dream, but a dream none the less? Chara lifted and pinched her arm and yelped. This...wasn't a dream then.

"C-Chara?" A small, quiet voice called out, one that sounded like it rarely sees use. Chara's head whipped back towards Frisk, worry in her gaze.

"I-I'm here Frisk, d-don't worry!" Chara was quick to reply, kneeling back by her sister's side as Frisk sat up.

"Hey, w-why don't you get up and we can f-find somewhere better for you to lie down." The girl quickly asked, failing in her attempt to hide her scared stutter. Chara helped Frisk sit up, then stood up herself. She gripped her sisters hand and pulled Frisk up. They didn't stop holding hands.

The two took off into the darkness, Chara taking the lead and clutching her sister's hand protectively. Frisk tapped Chara's wrist to get her attention before gesturing to her sister about asking where they were.

"I'm...I'm not s-sure, but It can't be w-worse than the school at night. Right?" Chara took a deep breath, determined not to show her fear to her already frightened sister. She needed to be the older sister. When Frisk didn't gesture her thoughts, Chara let it drop and continued going forward.

They walked through a dark doorway, from what she could see, and suddenly everything brightened. Chara winced and Frisk turned away to let her eyes adjust. It took a moment, but Chara's eyes adjusted and she slowly opened her eyes to glance around. A bright but comforting purple decorated the walls, ceiling, and floor, and two sets of grand staircases sat in front and wound around to the higher floor above. Red leaves decorated the floor between the bottom step of both staircases.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Chara's eyes darted around. The girl reminded herself that at least they could see. Suddenly, Frisk darted forward and dragged Chara with her. The nine year old giggled as she plunged into the leaves. They crinkled warmly to the child's ears. Chara attempted to recover as she lay there in the leaves. The fuzzy, warm sensation Chara had seemed to impede that recover.

Then Frisk suddenly filled her vision with an expression of worry. Her hands reached out and shaked Chara. The girl tensed and pushed Frisk away on instinct, leaving the nine year old to gasp in surprise as she landed on her butt. Chara realized what she had done and quickly sat up. Her brown (almost red) eyes were extremely apologetic.

"Frisk, I am so sorry!" The girl's voice didn't stutter, and she was quick to stand and offer a hand to help her sister up. Frisk watched in fascination before taking the offer and jumping up with her usual grin. Chara raised an eyebrow questioningly, and Frisk answered with a hug. As if saying she knew it was an accident and that Frisk forgave her.

It surprised Chara, but she smiled and hugged the kid back. When Frisk acted like she should, a kid her age, it adored Chara. Frisk's childish innocence was easily one of her favorite things.

"Thanks Frisk, it's good to know you still forgive me. Now come on, let's go see if we can find anyone. This place looks like someone lives here." With her sister's innocence filling her with determination, Chara took the lead in going up the steps. Frisk, who had let go of her sister, followed behind with complete confidence in her sibling.

A pair of voices from beyond the doorway made both girls freeze in their tracks. Chara held an arm out and closed her arms, hoping it would help her discern any possible clues from the voices.

"We can't...To-...lea..."

"Just lo...okay?" The voices were near, and Chara couldn't decide whether to seem friendly or they hide for the moment. Immediately, her course of action became clear. With lightning in her step, she turned and grabbed Frisk's hand, yanked the girl down the stairs, and gestured for her to lay hidden in the leaves.

Frisk stared at Chara in confusion, unknowingly frustrating the older sibling as the voices became too close for her liking.

"Frisk, please," Chara whisper screamed in her frustration. "Hide in the leaves, please." Realization dawned upon the younger girl, but ended up confusing the child even further. They went looking for help, but now hiding? Chara's attempts to emphasize her point died as a voice from above floated down to them.

"Wait, are those humans?" A deeper, obviously male voice to Chara's ears, asked. Her head snapped up and her hand snapped out in front of Frisk protectively. She had expected humans, the girl couldn't have expected this. Eyes wide with fear and her breath taken away, all she could do was watch as the two monsters examined them and started to come down cautiously.

They both looked like goats on two legs, that was Chara's immediate observation, which was a lot in her shocked state. One was humongous, it's horns were huge, it's body was huge, it's mustache was huge. And it intimidated Chara, who would have told you monsters don't exist. The other one was more lithe, seemed more contained, and while not near as intimidating, still made Chara anxious. What clued Chara in that they were harmless was the couples' gentle and warm expressions that formed after the goats seemed to realize something. This and the whimper of her sister snapped Chara out of it, and the girl's face set into am expression of determination as she moved to stand defensively in front of the younger girl. The two goats shared a look before the smaller one stepped forward, but not extremely close, and kneeled so she was around their height.

"Do not be afraid, little ones." Her voice was comforting and gentle, her face kind, and despite her fear; Chara was already feeling herself relax in the female monster's presence. "My name is Toriel, and my husband Asgore is behind me. What are your names?"

Chara was split on what she wanted to do. In the moment of indecision, though, a smaller voice spoke up from behind her.

"Frisk a-and Chara..." Frisk pipped up, moving so she was behind Chara's arm, but closer to the goat woman.

"F-Frisk, what are y-you doing?!" Chara muttered in anger, eyes fearfully darting between the goat woman and Frisk. Frisk didn't say anything, knowing the situation wasn't a deadly one. This sentiment was confirmed when a soft chuckle sounded from both Asgore and Toriel. Then Asgore came and kneeled next to Toriel.

"Are you two alright? How did you both come in?" Asgore's voice rumbled soothingly, Chara rather liked it.

"Well, we...fell, from a h-hole. We're f-fine..." Chara reluctantly answered, biting her lip and glancing away from the monsters. She didn't notice Frisk move from behind her and go up to Toriel and Asgore.

The kid examined them for a moment before grinning and waving. Chara took notice and flipped out as she darted over to try and drag Frisk back. Despite being desperate, Frisk stood her ground, trying to prove to Chara that they weren't going to get hurt. Eventually Chara wore herself out, and Frisk giggled at the antics of her sister.

"My, you two are endearing to watch." Toriel giggled as well, and Asgore was smiling warmly. Her expression changed to worry after a moment, though. "You two must be exhausted. Why don't you come with us?"

"Are you going to h-hurt us?" Chara asked in rapid response, eyeing Toriel with distrust. The monster became quickly disgusted with the idea and shook her head.

"I promise you, child, no harm will come to you and your friend." Chara pondered the offer for a moment, glancing back towards Frisk. Her sister did need shelter, and she was rather fond of Asgore and Toriel so far. Denying Frisk of her safety was too much for even conflicted Chara to do. Besides, Chara respected Frisk's judgement, and Frisk really trusted them, so why not?

"S-sure, sounds n-nice."


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Three favorites and a review already? Thank you for the support for the people who did follow~**

 **Any text between ( ) are Chara's inner, secondary thoughts, not just story narration.**

 **I don't own any of the characters of Undertale, they all belong to Toby Fox.**

Toriel and Asgore were even friendlier than the girls could have imagined. Even slightly distrustful Chara felt at home with the monster couple by the time the two had guided them through what was apparently part of the current capital of monsters. They were in the castle where the king and queen lived. Frisk had been excited to learn that Asgore and Toriel were said queen and king. It also altered Chara's train of thought, if the king and queen were so nice, maybe all monsters were just as friendly.

A few monsters roamed the halls of their king and queen, and always cast a glance back at the strange sight of Frisk and Chara. They were wondering what kind of monster they were, but any suspicions they could have had weren't there. Their train of thought: if they were with the king and queen so peacefully, who cared? Their leaders were great judges of character.

Frisk and Chara gave them looks back, but had been pacified into friendliness by that point. Frisk even went up to them and introduced herself. Chara watched on with a grin, just glad her sister seemed happy. There was one point when Frisk noticed her older sister's silence, and the little girl slowly came up with something with a mischievous grin.

"So you two are siblings?" Toriel asked to confirm, her eyes watching Frisk skip ahead of them. The queen trusted her subjects, but was wary all the same. She couldn't be sure how the people would react, or even if they would recognize the human children.

"Yes, I'm the older one, Frisk there is a couple years younger."

"You seem to care for her very much, and she does in return." Asgore's deep voice mentioned as they strode up to a large, thriving tree; it stood in front of the entrance to a warm purple colored house.

"Well, yeah, that's what siblings are supposed to do, aren't they?" Chara asked as if it was common sense. Her gaze was trained on Asgore in a confused and an expression saying 'are you sure you're all there'. Asgore glanced down at her to answer, but grinned wryly at the look and started chuckling. Chara's eyebrows creased in deeper confusion, but as she was about to ask Asgore what he was giggling about, Frisk let out a surprised cry from up front. Toriel had already begun racing forward.

Chara's head snapped towards her sister's voice; her breathing quickened. Frisk had fallen into her butt and glancing up at the monster that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. This monster had a smooth skull and wore glasses. It wore a long, pitch black trench coat with a neat, black shirt tucked into equally black pants, and did it have gloves on? His expression was one of constant evaluation, and even could be considered cold to a degree.

"I apologize for the child Gaster, she did not mean too." Toriel spoke as she went over to help Frisk up.

"Is that a human, Queen Dreemur?" The...man, Chara determined from his baritone and even tone, asked. He bypassed the Queen's apology entirely, which by the way the Queen didn't notice, seemed a normal occurance. Chara didn't like it, and after a split second of sizing the apparently skeleton monster up, she left Asgore's side. Marching up to stand directly in front of Frisk, Chara wore a sour expression and crossed her arms. This guy didn't scare her, especially after slowly becoming accustomed to the sight of monsters on their walk through the Capital.

"Of course we are, sir."

The guy, she faintly remembered Toriel had called him Gaster, turned his even gaze towards Chara. It examined her, evaluated her, practically saw through her soul, and only her determination to be strong in front of her sister kept her from shivering. Those eyes were colder than anything she could think of; the eyes of a man (or monster) who did what he wanted to find out anything in his grasp. Intelligent, but extremely detached. His eyes were almost (did she dare?)...void like.

Or at least, that's what Chara thought, until the skeleton gave a gentle and warm smile. His cold eyes dissipated, replaced by excitement and warmness, although the calculating gleam never disappeared. Gaster kneeled so he was at Chara's height, for he was easily twice her height, maybe even almost three times.

"It's nice to meet you, miss, my name is W.D. Gaster. May I ask yours?" He asked energetically, warmth radiating off the monster. Gaster seemed extremely excited to meet a human.

Behind them, Toriel and Asgore shared a guarded look.

"Chara, nice to...meet you then?" Poor Chara had been thrown off by the (freakingsweartoallthingsholy-) sudden shift from intimidating man to kid friendly giant. Now she awkwardly greeted herself, her defensive stance seeming more awkward by this point. She avoided meeting the man's eyes, or pinpoints of light, she guessed it was the same thing in the end. A shift of clothing from behind signaled Frisk's coming over with her childish smile. Frisk waved at Gaster, friendly after recovering from the shock of running into someone.

"And who are you?" Gaster asked, eyes shifting to the oblivious Frisk.

"She's Chara's sister, Frisk." Toriel answered for the girls, putting a hand on each of her shoulders. Chara jumped, not expected the contact in the least. "We found them at the entrance with the hole not to far from it."

"So humans can fall through, interesting." Gaster replied, standing so he could talk to Toriel normally. His gaze seemed to wander off, it was obvious he was thinking. "How old are these two?"

"Maybe we can continue this somewhere else, Gaster." Asgore started calmly, gesturing to the area around them. Monsters had gathered in curiosity of the events that had just occurred. Gaster blinked, took a single glance around, and nodded his agreement.

"Yes, why don't we head into my lab. It's the closest here. We could check the humans over for injuries."

"That sounds like a lovely idea." Toriel agreed, hands still on the shoulders of the human children. She had her hands on their shoulders the whole walk to the lab.

It hadn't been far to reach the lab, a few twists and turns into the busier parts of the Capital and they were there. Monsters still turned their heads and attempted to get a look at these 'humans'. Word travels fast in the small place. So when Chara entered the building, she felt momentary relief. It didn't last, as she got a good look around at her surroundings, and she felt like she was in one of those bad horror movies her mom always watched.

The walls of the first room were sterile white, a group of chairs were set in a neat little square off to the left of the entrance. A few tables sat neatly against the wall to her right, a desk sat further back on the left corner. Know what, she scratched her previous thought, she was in a bad zombie horror movie, in a hospital. Two other doors were behind the desk.

Toriel and Asgore situated Chara and Frisk to sit in the group of chairs before Gaster took them through one of the doors, the one to the left. Frisk didn't mind, she mindlessly swung her legs back and forth, waiting patiently for the return of the three monsters. The child was quite fond of them.

Chara, on the other hand, was tense. That fuzzy, warm feeling from earlier had coursed through her as she had sat down, and her instincts told her something was deeply wrong with this place. There wasn't anything to fear, though, right? The king and queen didn't seem like people who went back on their promises. What truly unsettled the girl, though, was that she couldn't properly read Gaster.

Her dad had feared for the worst in life, and had made sure he had taught Chara all of his wisdom. Despite her own complaints about the teaching and lessons that could appear from simply eating a sandwich, it had helped the child learn to read people. When she couldn't, it caused her some anxiety. It meant they purposely had something to hide.

Frisk shook Chara out of her irritated reverie, and made frantic gestures towards the door to the right behind the desk. The older sibling gave her younger sister a weird expression of confusion.

"What, Frisk? There's nothing there." From her seat, the door looked like what it was, a door. It looked closed. This only moved to agitate Frisk further. To think it agitated her sister so much, Chara knew something was up. Her sister didn't do this out of the blue. But what was there? The door looked...open. (Oh dear).

With the exact moment of that thought, Chara noticed the door opening. She was up and standing in front of her sister within the second. The desk stood in her view of the lower half of the door, so the only thing she could be sure of is that it wasn't anything tall.

A bony hand appeared and clung to the side of the desk. The next few seconds felt like an eternity as Chara waited. The girl panicked on what she could do. She couldn't fight! There were no weapons around either, for once, she wished Gaster would hurry up and come back. Waiting was complete torture.

Then a skull popped out from behind the desk, wearing a large grin. The monster was smaller than the desk, which held to be a few inches taller than Chara, the monster was about her height. It examined Chara before moving from behind the desk. A simple, small, white hospital-esqe gown covered the skeleton.

Frisk hopped down from her chair and moved to stand next to Chara, taking her sister's hand. This was her gesture in apologizing for overreacting. Frisk hadn't been sure why she had gotten so jumpy. Little did she know, she felt this place was just as unnatural as her sister found it to be.

Chara found herself to be tense and waiting for the stupidly grinning (kid?) monster to speak. Its grin widened further, and it suddenly had halved the distance between the human children and itself.

"Hi, I'm Sans!"

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	4. Chapter 3

Timeline 1: Chapter 3

Chara stared at the skeleton in surprise, a bit surprised at that choice of action. Her moment of inaction allowed Frisk to act first, and the nine year old gave her sister's hand a reassuring squeeze. Then Frisk let go of Chara's hand and walked over. She gave Sans a warm, friendly smile and quietly gave Sans her name.

"nice to meet you, Frisk." The skeleton kid chuckled. His eyes were wide in unadulterated joy.

"Frisk!" Chara hissed in surprised irritation, eyes widening slightly as she followed her sister. Frisk turned towards her sister, confusion written on her face.

"W-what? He's nice." Frisk spoke quietly, unsure why her sister was being so mean.

"You didn't know that a moment ago! What if he had wanted to hurt you?" Chara replied in concerned agitation. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out. Now certainly wasn't the time to get riled up.

"are you alright, miss?" Sans asked Chara politely, his grin dropping in concern. His tone held his concern as well. A moment of silence, then Chara opened her eyes and held out her hand.

"I'm fine, don't call me 'miss', though, makes me feel like an old fart. My name's Chara." Chara waited for Sans to shake her hand. When he hadn't, she grit her teeth in irritation. Sans looked between her outstretched hand Chara herself. His confusion had been written all over his face.

Chara groaned and shook her head. He didn't know what a handshake was? Frisk was currently restraining a giggle.

"Hey, Sans, right?" The skeleton nodded in reply. "This is how my dad told me you greet new friends. I reached my hand out, and now you stretch yours out and we shake our hands." Chara explained quickly, and talking condescendingly, as if she was talking to a stupider person.

Sans was oblivious to the fact she had been offensive in any way. He was too caught up in giving his hand a good stare down and studying it. The skeleton boy then slowly moved to awkwardly grip Chara's hand in return. Chara watched as the boy seemed to squirm at the contact. He didn't seem used to it, and the warm, fleshiness of her hand.

She nodded in approval and gently shook their clasped hands to show he had done it right. To Chara, it wasn't anything new, but to Sans, well, he lit up like a Christmas tree, completely elated. Chara smirked in amusement at Sans antics.

"Have you ever shaken someone's hand before?" She asked, curious and trying to strike up a conversation. This monster kid didn't seem to be dangerous either. Actually, he wore his heart on his sleeve more than anything else. So the next thing he did gave Chara more to wonder about.

Sans seemed to wilt and turned his gaze away from Chara and Frisk. His hand dropped back to his side.

"u-uh, well, my b-brother Gaster doesn't l-let me go outside. i-i wasn't even supposed to c-come into this r-room. you two are the f-first people other t-than my brother I've t-talked to..." The usual cheery Sans had had a moment earlier was gone, replaced by this nervous (was he anxious?), unsure little kid.

That knocked Chara off a few pegs. Now she felt bad for the monster kid. Who would do that to their sibling? That seemed rather cruel to do.

"Aren't siblings supposed to take care of one another?" She questioned Sans inquisitively. Sans kept his gaze to the floor and didn't reply. Unable to give a proper answer, Sans decided silence was the better option. Chara wasn't putting up with that. Elder sibling instincts kicking in made her feel indignant at the thought of even keeping Frisk from living her life. It helped her become sympathetic towards Sans.

"Sans, come on, are you gonna answer me?" Chara attempted not to sound forceful, but couldn't restrain herself well. Frisk frowned and put a hand on her sister's shoulder in warning as Sans hands started shaking slightly. Chara didn't notice or didn't care for either action. "People can't be bad like that, can they?"

Lucky for Sans, faint voices from behind the closed door to the left started becoming audible. What wasn't so lucky, his brother was coming. The skeleton seemed to become paler in color and his eyes widened in slight fear. Eyes going back up to Chara and Frisk, he took a few steps back, and then he was gone, with Chara faintly hearing an 'I'll see you later' type of thing. Both girls stood there a moment in surprise, shared a glance, and then Gaster, Toriel, and Asgore entered the room.

Toriel noticed the odd positioning immediately, and frowned curiously.

"Is something wrong, children?" The goat monster asked, heading over first. Chara weighed the options of telling or not telling them. She had nothing to loose from lying, but...it felt wrong to give the kid away. She couldn't be sure if the kid had been lying about his 'brother', but until she knew, it seemed wrong.

"Nothing ma'am, my sister only thought she saw a spider." Chara lied, sounding convincing and polite. Frisk took a moment to process that, but didn't comment on it. She trusted her sister more than the monsters.

"Maybe we should keep her away from Muffet, then." Asgore chuckled, obviously joking.

"Who's Muffet?" Chara asked in an attempt to direct the conversation towards another topic.

"A friendly spider..." Asgore started to explain as Toriel lead Frisk, Chara, and Asgore out the door. The female boss monster gave Gaster a quiet thanks over her shoulder before the door shut behind them.

A dry chuckle escaped Gaster's mouth. It didn't match the empty expression in his eyes. Now to deal with the matter of his brother.

/

Currently, Sans was jumping around his room in excitement. He had just made friends! Joy filled all of his bones at the prospect of just the idea of friendship. The skeleton boy jumped onto his bed with a happy hum. It reverberated around the empty, completely metal encased room the boy stayed in. For never having met anyone other than his brother, Sans thought the meeting with the girls had been nice. Humans didn't seem as bad as certain things depicted them to be (the only reason for his knowledge of them being humans coming from the fact that Sans had been listening through the door before Gaster had left the room with the Queen and King). Chara and Frisk. Nice names.

Sans stayed like that for a while, humming and kicking his legs back and forth on the bed. Slowly, though, his enthusiastic energy died off, Sans eventually becoming still as his gaze stayed towards the floor. What would his brother do if he found out? Sans was certain he avoided doing anything that his brother would note suspiciously, but Gaster was hard to fool. Heh, why did he worry about that now? He hadn't worried about it when he impulsively left his room.

Anxiety swelled within Sans, the kid started shaking ever so slightly. He forced his grin to stay planted in his expression, and he forced the anxiety down. The skeleton would never allow himself to show his nervousness around his brother. Sans didn't want his brother to think that Sans wasn't grateful for all he had done...

Shaking his head clear, Sans turned his mind to focus on other things. Now how was he to visit the human girls again? That happened to be a challenge Sans was up for. He didn't want to think of the consequences. The skeleton refused to think of them. Rather, Sans preferred to think of the positives that could come from that. So many questions crowded his brain, he was finding it hard to really organize anything.

With a quiet shift in air, the door opened, and Sans eyes widened in surprise. A shadow seeped into the room from the monster standing in the path of the brighter lights in the hall. Sans eyes darted up to the figure in the doorway, his shaky grin gone.

Gaster stood in the doorway, and seemed to fill the space well. The door had been specially made with the scientist's height in mind, so he didn't have to bend. A tense silence ensued, with Sans meeting Gaster's eyes warily and Gaster evaluating the skeleton kid. Minutes later, Gaster chuckled and smiled warmly. He had a plan in mind on how to study the humans, since the king and queen weren't going to allow anything soon. The misshape of his brother's little escape actually benefited him.

"Did you like meeting the humans?" A warm tone asked kindly, surprising Sans. The kid had expected his brother to be angrier. He couldn't find any part of him that didn't like how this situation turned out, though. His innocent smile returned.

"yeah, they were cool! uh, sir!" Sans jumped off the bed with an expressive arm gesture into the air. Despite himself, Gaster felt genuine warmth from seeing his brother so happy. The skeleton had to be careful now. Job came first.

"I am glad you seemed to enjoy their presence. Possibly, if given the chance," Gaster started as he drifted over and kneeled in front of Sans. "Would you enjoy seeing them again? I believe it is time you obtained some social experience." Gaster was careful to appear thoughtful in the right places, a bit unsure here and there, enough sprinkled in to fool his innocent brother. Sans eyes widened in surprise, then his grin widened in unadulterated joy once again.

"yes, that would be wonderful, sir!"

"I will talk with the Queen and King about it. If the human children are not deemed threats, I am nearly certain the Dreemurs would not mind a playmate for their new guests."

Gaster smiled to himself as his brother made his excitement known. It did please him to see Sans so happy, but the main cause of his happiness happened to come from the new opportunities this opened for him.

He hadn't out right suggested anything to the Queen and King outright. More of a heavily suggestion that they're humans, and now they might be harmless, but what about the future? The older one seemed pretty aggressive. That they didn't know what the kids had been taught. If they had really just fallen, or had come down here for a more sinister purpose.

Even with his convincing argument, both the queen and king seemed convinced that the kids were only scared. Of course they had just fallen into something they weren't told about. Didn't matter until they started dusting monsters, and 'hate only breeds more hate'. Oh well, Gaster liked this approach much more. Subtle, and also gave him a chance to see how Sans reacted to things. Maybe the boy actually had acquired some powers.

Either way, Gaster was going to make sure he got his way. He happened to have gotten too curious to not look into the matter of human souls. This was his chance, and he was going to take it.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting the chapter, everyone, but here it is now! Also, in with more good news, the updating schedule for this story should be every Wednesday unless there is further notice given. Hope you all enjoy the chapter~**

Chapter 4

Timeline 1: With Many of the Living Moments We Have

A week passed, or Chara assumed it had been a week. Without any sun or moon to judge the turning of days, she could only judge her internal clock. The monsters seemed to have their own system set up as well. Similar enough to her internal clock that it creeped her out. Different enough that it seemed alien. All in all, it was a weird switch that she found hard to adjust to.

At least Chara didn't have to worry about Frisk. Kid seemed to have been adjusting well, in their temporary conditions. The friendly child had been having fun getting to know all the curious monsters that wandered close to where they temporarily stayed. Then when they weren't allowed to adventure, Frisk spent time with Toriel and Asgore (Toriel, mainly). Chara had followed along and casually chatted with some monsters, but otherwise kept to herself. She would be lying to say she wasn't slightly distrustful, but she had felt that way around humans as well. In all honesty, this small monster population seemed much nicer than the majority of the human population outside.

Even the king of monsters, Asgore, turned out to be insanely nice. Chara thought he was actually a bit dimwitted and a softy. That, too, was preferable to cold humanity outside. Most of her time started to become spending time with Asgore and Frisk. Toriel wasn't bad to spend time with, but Chara had noticed the female monster's sharp eyes. It had eventually dawned upon Chara that Toriel held the power of running the kingdom. Although that didn't mean Asgore was a wet noodle nor did Toriel abuse her power. Something that noticed things, though, made Chara feel uncomfortable. Man, she didn't know what caused such a response.

Currently, the girl sat in the garden that the throne room consisted off. The tall, mosaic-like windows rose up with the walls on the far edges of the room. She sat in the middle of a collection of yellow flowers, the thrones sitting behind her and a plate with a piece of butterscotch-cinnamon pie in her lap. Toriel had made the girls something special after Frisk had started to feel the affects of homesickness. Chara wouldn't have left the room, but Toriel requested she did. Now she sat in the garden, feeling slightly dejected, though respecting Toriel had a reason for her actions.

"Hello, Chara." A familiar baritone voice greeted from the doorway. Chara lit up slightly at Asgore's voice and turned her gaze to him. The goat monster ambled into the room with a warm smile. His posture seemed relax, but while his walk seemed relaxed as well, the steps declared a purpose.

"Hello, Mr. Asgore." Chara greeted, a small but genuine grin of her own. Her red eyes watched the friendly giant move to sit in front of her in the patch of flowers.

"Why are you sitting over here by yourself?" A quietly spoken question laced with concern. Chara almost felt like not answering him. Almost. She felt comfortable around Asgore by this point, though, so after a moment of silence she told him.

"Frisk was feeling homesick, Mrs. Toriel wanted to talk to her alone." Chara noticed Asgore's face almost twist into something like apology, but it disappeared as quickly as it came, making her question seeing it.

"I am sure she will feel better soon. I also assure you we will find a way for you two to leave." Asgore tried to assure Chara, his gaze turning away and failing to be assuring. Chara remembered when Asgore told her the truth of their current situation. Not only did a being need a monster and human soul to get through what trapped them (which she learned had been the barrier made by seven human magicians), the monsters also didn't know where another exit from this place lay. They hadn't explored any further than from this place. Toriel and Asgore had talked about moving further in, nothing had been done though.

Chara sighed and shook her head.

"Its fine, Mr. Asgore, Frisk and I understand." Sometimes she hated being the older sibling. Frisk had understood, but still asked questions Chara felt bad about not being able to answer. She was responsible for trying to keep her sister happy, and right now she felt like a failure at that.

"There is a reason I came to find you." Asgore finally said, his eyes turning back to Chara. He waited until the child met his eyes. "Dr. Gastor came to me the other day with a question. There is someone I want you to meet." The king seemed much cheerier about this, and his grin was infectious. That plus Chara knowing who Asgore was talking about cheered the girl up immediately.

"Come on in Gaster." Asgore called back to the doorway. Gaster and a familiar, smaller skeleton walked through. Chara set the plate of pie on the ground before standing. While she did her best to mask her knowing excitement, she also attempted to look curious and unknowing. Being unsure which was safe to act like caused this. Asgore rose beside Chara.

"You've met Gaster," Asgore nodded in hello towards the royal scientist (Asgore had told her that). "This little one here is named Sans. Dr. Gaster asked Toriel and I if we could let Sans play with you and your sister while he worked on a big project for the next few weeks, and we agreed."

Sans looked around in wonder, the skeleton kid seemed to never have seen anything quite as pretty as the flower garden throne room. Chara noted he also now wore what seemed to be gray shorts a tad too big for him and a light blue jacket that was actually too big for him. A gray shirt could be seen underneath the coat. Hmm, the girl would have to question about it later. She watched as Sans eyes drifted from the mosaic windows to the golden flower bed. Then Sans' eyes moved to meet hers, Chara grinned in a silent greeting.

"hi, Chara!" Sans greeted with what seemed to be an ever-plastered grin on his face. Despite the enthusiasm, he seemed unsure of walking away from his brother. Gaster warmly chuckled and gently gave Sans a push towards Chara and Asgore. Said girl chuckled and went ahead and moved towards Sans. Honestly, she felt excited to see Sans again.

"Hey, Sans." Chara kept a chill atmosphere as she wanted to impress the younger (I assume, at least) kid. "Like the outfit."

The blunt compliment startled Sans. He couldn't think of how to respond to it, and a bright blue blush somehow appeared on his cheek bones. Chara frowned, how could a skeleton blush? Then again, monsters existed, so she couldn't really be sure that a blushing skeleton wasn't possible either.

Asgore chuckled as he quietly shifted and moved to leave the room. Gaster took a minute longer to leave. The adult monster stood there with an expressionless face, watching the children interact. Eventually, Asgore called out to him. To keep from cursing in agitation took the majority of his will. Leaving his brother here agitated him for two reasons: one, his brotherly instincts were kicking in for once, he didn't want to leave Sans alone in such a place. Second, the instincts Gaster had cultivated as a scientist kicked in, he wanted to observe the two in this protected environment. It would make Asgore suspicious, though. Plus, he could see the human Chara noticing his prolonged presence, and thus Gaster gave Sans a quiet goodbye and left the room.

The moment the older skeleton had left, Chara relaxed and sank to sit among the flowers. Always, when Gaster was nearby, she felt on edge. As if an encroaching lion sat in the shadows of the room and didn't attack, but always reminding you it sat there waiting for your moment of weakness (she would have to give credit to her dad for that fancy comparison).

"chara?" Said twelve year old opened her eyes at the worried voice of Sans. For a moment, she considered telling him exactly what she thought of his brother. Her mouth opened, then she stopped as she read Sans expression. The smile had dropped, and she could tell he was just as innocent as Frisk. That single connecting thought to her sister made her stop in her tracks. It didn't sit right with Chara to crush such innocence. Her Determination faultered, and soon she found herself looking towards the golden flowers.

"chara, you there?" Sans rephrased his question, his worry became even clearer to Chara. She heard him shift in the flowers, and she guessed Sans had sat down in front of her. Something of that sort at the least. For a moment, both kids remained silent.

"Its fine, Sans." Chara managed to strangle out as she looked back at him. "Just felt sick for a moment." The girl gave a half-hearted chuckle in an attempt to reassure the skeleton boy. It worked, to both Chara's pleasure and displeasure.

"i got worried for a moment, ya know?" Sans replied back, his grin coming back with a chuckle. It seemed as if he had relaxed. The skeleton cast a glance around at the windows again as he adjusted to sit in a butterfly position.

"I'm gonna take a guess and say this is the first time you've seen anything like this." Chara eventually commented in her attempt to break the second awkward silence. It hadn't been like she had expected Sans to come over as he did or when he did. The girl couldn't think of much to talk about and she spoke the first thing that had come to mind.

"yeah, it took Gaster a long time to bring me over. i was so overwhelmed at first!" Chara chuckled as the boy's eyes widened in his retelling.

"What has been your favorite part?"

"all the new people! they are all so nice!" Sans excitement practically became tangible. Chara gave the boy a pleasant smile and nodded in encouragement for him to continue. From there, she didn't talk much, Sans ended up talking continuously. It didn't bother Chara much, and she seemed content to let Sans talk for as long as he wanted about the narrative of his trip here. About the shyness that had overswept him at first around people. The awe at such a magnificent place the rest of the capital city held to be. Gaster letting him take as long as he wanted as he explored, but keeping him going towards the direction of the castle. Even the moments the skeleton boy wanted to turn back because he had been so overwhelmed by the amount of things he had never seen before.

Then the tale cut off as Sans came to the present, with his meeting with the king and finally meeting up with Chara again.

"Sounds like you had a lot of fun." Chara giggled while Sans attempted to calm down from his speech.

"yep!" Came Sans giggly answer before he seemed to realize something. The skeleton frowned slightly and glanced around. "where's Frisk?" Chara found it surprisingly hard to answer that question.

"Well...right now she's with the Queen."

"oh, how long will that take?"

"Depends," Chara may have liked Sans, but she didn't completely trust him yet. So instead of answering fully, she gave him a cryptic answer. As a side thought, she picked up the plate of butterscotch-cinnamon pie that had been temporarily forgotten. Chara watched as Sans eyes widened in childish curiosity at the pie, and an idea came to her.

"Want to try something else new, Sans?"


	6. Chap 5: The Death

**A/N: Again, any text between ( ) is Chara's personal, first person thoughts. I also do not own any of the content below, they all belong to Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale~**

Chapter 5

Timeline 1: And Those Mistakes are Worth It

A couple of hours later, Toriel and Frisk went to search for Chara. They first looked in the throne room, and saw she had left her jacket. Frisk noticed the left article of clothing first, and picked it up in confusion. Chara was always pretty good at remembering to pick up after herself. The little girl turned to get Toriel's attention, but the Queen had already started coming the child's way.

"What is it that you have there, Frisk?" Frisk held up the jacket for Toriel to see, and Toriel frowned pensively. The gentle Queen noticed Frisk's worried eyes and the boss monster couldn't help but try and give Frisk a smile of reassurance. "I am sure she's fine, maybe she went somewhere else for a moment? Let's go check outside real quick. How does that sound?"

Toriel's efforts were rewarded with a smile and energetic nod from Frisk.

"Why don't we sta-" In the middle of Toriel's sentence came a crash from outside, interrupting her. Then a burst of laughter, and what both human and monster recognized as Chara. Though they both heard another few voices, which made Frisk curious and Toriel confused. With Frisk hugging Chara's jacket to her body, her and Toriel left the throne room and followed the noise. Distinct voices could be heard and made out now.

"That was a complete fail, Sans. You're doing it all wrong."

"w-well, my teacher can't be good either!"

"Can't be what? Good looking?"

Around then, both Toriel and Frisk stood in the doorway of the castle, watching in curious and confused wonder as Chara helped a skeleton child, about the size of Frisk, off the ground. Both were giggling helplessly, and caused Frisk to grin in joy. She ran down the steps and into Chara to hug her, knocking the older girl off of her feet again and taking Sans down with them.

"W-what?! Frisk? Ugh, what was that for?" Chara groaned in pain as she attempted to try and dislodge her younger sister, once she recognized who it was. The younger girl quietly giggled and gestured to the fallen over Sans. Frisk tried to get across that she found it funny Chara had actually managed to make a friend. After all, Chara had made it clear to Frisk that she originally didn't seem interested in making friends down here. The message seemed to take Chara a moment to understand and then process, but eventually when it did come to her, she flushed in indignance.

"Frisk, you know better!" Chara's words only incited more silent giggling with Frisk as the younger girl crawled off her sister. Chara pushed herself off the ground and quickly moved to Sans side to help the skeleton up. "I apologize for that Sans."

"it's fine, Chara, and hi Frisk!" Sans greeted cheerily, remembering the younger girl from their meeting a week ago. Frisk's reply became a happy hug, and Sans appeared flustered, unsure how to react. To tear Frisk away from the hug was like trying to tear a glued piece of paper neatly off the top of another, thus Chara didn't try. Soon Frisk pulled away and attempted to silently ask Sans what was he doing here. Sans picked up the question immediately and his ever present grin seemed to widen.

"brother let me come, he's letting come out now, like he promised!"

"Now like he promised?" An older feminine voice from behind the trio chimed in. Toriel, internally at least, seemed quite suspicious, but outwardly as to not alarm Sans, seemed simply curious. The child turned his eyes up to her's and gave her a vigorous nod, but didn't seem willing to say anything else. Actually, after a moment of realizing his answer, the small skeleton darted his eyes away from Toriel and seemed to grow nervous. Sans grew tense, almost seeming ready to burst away. Toriel was not oblivious to this and kneeled in front of Sans, giving him a reassuring smile. "Never mind, if you don't want to say anything, you don't have to worry about hurting my feelings."

This relaxed Sans, and his smile widened again. Now his train of thought was entirely focused on playing with his new friends. Toriel stood and moved out of the children's way, externally smiling, but it was a bit hollow from her internal suspicion. For a moment, the boss monster was torn between staying to watch the children and leaving to go speak to Asgore about this. Frisk handed Chara her jacket back after a moment of an uncomfortable silence. Chara took it back and slung the piece of clothing on with a quiet thanks.

"Hey Sans, want to know about a human game? Or, well, I guess monsters might play it…. Whatever! Want to know?" Chara asked the skeleton, smirking in her own personal movement. Frisk seemed curious as to what her sister would suggest. Sans tilted his head in reply, curious about this possible game. Then he jumped in surprise as Chara launched towards Frisk and yelled 'tag' at the top of her lungs before she darted off. Frisk had jumped as well, but instead of remained shocked, she recovered, gave a giggle, and motioned for Sans to follow. The younger sister darted off after her sister, with a giggling but partially confused Sans following after her. Toriel couldn't help her own smile of amusement. She guessed her answer was to go find and talk to Asgore about this information. The Queen had confidence that the children would be alright.

-A few minutes later-

"The child said that?"

"Yes, and after I mentioned it, he grew evasive. He almost seemed as if he was about to bolt."

"This is troubling. We'll have to talk to Gaster about this." Asgore agreed with a resigned sigh. No wonder the King had never seen the small skeleton boy, Sans, before. Skeletons were very few in number, and it had been odd to Asgore as to how he wouldn't remember there being a child one like that. Much less not remember a skeleton child that happened to be the younger brother to the Royal Scientist. "Where is the boy now?"

"He went to play with the Chara and Frisk towards the place where we found them." Toriel let a small smile play onto her lips at the thought. Another thought snuck it's way into her mind, and she gasped quietly.

"What is it, dear?" Asgore asked with a frown, waiting for his wife to explain. She didn't give an immediate answer, and Asgore took a step closer to Toriel, clasping her hand lightly.

"...when should Gaster be coming back from his venture?" Toriel instead asked after a moment of silently contemplating on what to say.

"A few days from now." Asgore answered patiently, though giving his wife's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"We will need to keep a closer eye on the children until then." The reply came almost immediately and confidently. A mindful silence permeated the air.

"May I ask what's on your mind?" Asgore decided to carefully ask, concern etched into the features of his face. Toriel turned to him, clasping his other hand, and sighed.

"I promised these human children that no harm would come to them, I'm just anxious something might happen. This is the first time humans have fallen into the Underground since we were sealed away." The answer made Asgore try and give Toriel a reassuring, small smile before he hugged her. Toriel hugged Asgore back.

"Nothing will happen, Tori, as long as we are careful. On that note," The King pulled away with his grin growing wider and more mischievous. "Maybe we should go join them?" Toriel blinked in surprise before giggling at her husband's antics.

"That sounds like a great idea."

-By where Chara and Frisk fell-

"i'm going to get you, Chara!" Sans half yelled, half giggled as he chased after the girl. It had taken Sans a few minutes to get the hang of it, but soon he learned the intricacies of this 'tag'. He was determined to be the best at it while he was at it. Though in his determined high, he was letting Frisk be able to watch Sans run after Chara while simply leaning against a wall. Chara glared daggers at her younger sister whenever she could, which Frisk simply replied to with a suggestive eyebrow raise, and then Chara would stick her tongue out at Frisk before having to speed up as Sans gained ground. It was a never-ending cycle until Chara had finally had enough and ran over to Frisk and hid behind her. Sans was thus forced to put a sudden halt on his run, fell, and barrel rolled into Frisk. The only reason Chara hadn't been caught was from her evasive dive away from the two. When Chara came to rest, she turned her eyes back to where she had been standing moments before and burst into laughter. Frisk and Sans were tangled together beyond belief. Now Frisk had a reason to glare daggers back at her sister as she groaned in pain. Sans wasn't in a much better state.

"A-are you two a-a-alright?!" Chara attempted to ask through her laughter, although she was bending over from laughing so much.

"You...know better...Chara.." Frisk spoke in her quiet voice, not only causing Chara to die in laughter, but startling the skeleton boy she was tangled up with.

"y-you can speak?!" Sans didn't get much of an answer until a few minutes later, when Chara had finally decided she was done laughing and helped Frisk and Sans untangle from each other. The boy voiced his question of surprise again towards Frisk. Frisk gave him a simple shrug.

"Yeah, she can speak," Chara answered verbally in her sister's place. "She just chooses not to, although she won't tell us why." She gave Frisk a pointed look at this, and Frisk grinned with another shrug. Chara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "But anyways, are you sure you two are alright? That was a bit of a bad tumble, and I apologize for it." Frisk gave a reassuring nod to her sister's concerned look. Sans checked himself over before giving Chara a thumbs up.

"Good, I'm glad you two we-" A loud 'thump' sounded nearby, causing the trio of children to jump in surprise. Chara was quick to slide in front of Frisk defensively, her eyes darting around to check the area for any danger. Sans recovered after his moment of shock, and ended up more curious than cautious. He wandered a few steps in front of Chara.

"Sans! Stay here!" Chara hissed, reaching out and tugging Sans back rather violently, causing the boy to fall onto his behind.

"oww! that actually hurt Chara!"

"Sorry…." Chara's eyes widened as she realized what she did, and she moved to help Sans up. Once he was off the ground, her eyes darted between Sans and Frisk, then the direction of the noise. Right now they were a couple of yards away from the doors that lead to the steps that lead down towards the hole where her and Frisk had fallen. The noise had come from that general direction. Did someone else fall down? Her instincts told her to run as fast as she could, she could tell she was scared. Her eyes darted back to Frisk, silently asking the girl what she thought. Frisk's face remained blank for an antagonizing moment of thought before it creased into a determined frown. Alright, so Frisk thought they should go check. Her eyes turned to Sans, who had been watching the two expectantly.

"Frisk and I are going to see what made that noise, want to come? If not, you know how to head back." Chara wasn't fond of the idea of Frisk coming along, but both her and Frisk knew that once the other one became determined, they couldn't change the other one's mind.

"uh, are you two sure you want to do that?"

"We're going whether you like it or not." Chara answered, cursing her own curiosity and Frisk's determination to find out. Both sisters had the general same idea; if a human had fallen down they wanted to help. They weren't going to do that just standing here. Sans' grin turned into one with worry, glancing anxiously between both ends of the hall. A sigh escaped him, however possible, and he fixed his gaze onto Chara.

"fine, i'm going with you two, then." He didn't want to leave his new friends. With that declaration, Chara waved the two younger children behind her and went first. The other two fell into line behind her, and the trio went down the hall. They exited the hall and carefully stepped down the stairs, Chara feeling that same strange fuzzy, warm feeling from earlier as she passed the pile of leaves.

As they walked further and further, Chara's thoughts wandered. If it wasn't a human, hooray, they were all just nuts! If it was something else, she wasn't sure what to do. If it was a human, well, it depended on how they reacted. Maybe having other humans to greet them would help them calm down. But if it didn't, Chara couldn't even begin to gauge the possible reaction to Sans. Her eyes darted back to said skeleton pensively. This was great, maybe they should head back and get Ms. Toriel and Mr. Asgore…

Nope, too late, they were here.

She watched as the faint yellow color of the patch of flowers grew closer and brighter. Soon they were upon it. The faint sunlight covered a distinct, male form that was rising from the patch of flowers. He shook intensely, whether from fear or some type of physical ailment was unclear. To their left, something glimmered in the faint sunlight. Chara took a deep breath, gestured for Sans and Frisk to stay back, then took a few steps towards the older boy (I guess he's older, he certainly looks like it).

"Excuse me?" She spoke cautiously, though concerned for him as well. The boy flinched, his eyes darting up to her in fear. Chara stopped the moment he started moving so quickly. "Hey, calm, you're safe, just take a deep breath." This only served to agitate the boy further, his hand started searching the flower bed intensely.

"W-who are you?!" He shouted, and Chara could tell by his tone that he was panicking.

"...call me Chara, please, you need to calm. No one here is going to harm you." Chara had lowered her voice volume by this point, trying not to startle the boy further. She took a few more steps forward.

"How d-do I know you won't h-harm me?!" His hands found something and suddenly a knife appeared from the flowers. Chara's eyes widened and she stopped her advance. The boy shakily got off his knees, and stood with the knife in front of him. Now that Chara had a good look at him, his brown hair seemed lusterless, and just flopped there, unkempt to the point of uncleanliness. His eyes were hollow, and his body frame was thin; his clothes barely held onto his body. An ugly bruise marred the side of his face, it looked quite recent too. Chara grit her teeth in agitation since she wasn't sure what to do. Couldn't let a boy just run into the Underground with a knife, someone would get hurt that way. She stupidly decided to trust her gut and took a few more steps forward.

"Listen, I would have tried to harm you by now if I really wanted to." She slowly inched forward, closer and closer to the boy. He tensed initially, but slowly it seemed as if he was backing down, the knife getting lower and lower. Chara actually believed she had to be getting somewhere. "Just drop the knife, we can talk, if you want I can stop moving."

The boy's eyes darted away from Chara, good, she had made him unable to look at her. This was hopefully diffusing the situation. Chara took a few more shuffles, but ended up tripping, making it seem as if she was rushing the boy. Things took a turn for the worse. Her sudden motion startled the boy and he screeched. Chara practically ran into the knife as he extended his arms in his fear.

Time stopped for Chara at that moment. When she would look on it from a later perspective, she would mildly put it as the moment everything changed for her. When she would replay the memory, she could faintly hear Sans' and Frisk's screams, the pain from the memory would activate a faint ghost pain in her chest, but nothing would copy the pain it created then and there. She watched as her hands, in a daze, rose to clasp over the boy's own hands that clasped the handle of the knife. Chara coughed up something wet, which she realized a moment later was her blood as drops splattered across the stranger's face. Her eyes tiredly searched the boys as it started going black at the edges of her vision. They only held terrified horror, and there, an older Chara could say with confidence that she should have died and was the end of her first timeline. Her sight died and her mind shut down, and her last, shuddering breath, left her body.

 _Sorry, Frisk…._


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: I apologize if the last chapter seemed a little rushed guys, I was trying to get an update out at the time so I didn't break my promise, but here I am, breaking it a few weeks later without an update. I'll try to make up for it.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale or any associated characters, those rights belong to Toby Fox.**

Chapter 6

Between Timeline 1: 1st Save & 2nd Save

When Chara would 'come to', well, she really didn't come to. The girl hadn't even been really aware that she had died. All she could feel was a strange thrumming, and outside of that a familiar, almost comforting suffocating sensation. Even then, the child found it hard to describe, and she still did. The Void would always prove a hard place to explain. If things had been functioning as they were supposed to, Chara shouldn't have even felt this place's existence. Though something kept her there. What she could barely refer to as the scattered remnants of her mind wandered for a seeming eternity, for there was nothing to mark the passage of time in the void. It lazily, exhaustedly, tried to slug through the single thread of existence that kept her in the Void.

A vague noise cut it's way through the void, almost sounding like a voice(?), and a familiar bubbling feeling welled up inside the remnants of her mind. It acted like a warm glue, and slowly dragged her mind back together, and once again Chara could open her eyes. The sight that met her eyes certainly held to be the strangest she had seen as of yet.. A vague tug on something internally brought her eyes to a red light, and she metaphorically jumped back when her eyes landed on the small, broken, red heart that laid in front of her. The heck?

With a brief moment of hesitation, the girl tried to logically think this through. Where was she? (In the blackest of freaking abysses) What time was it? (How the heck could she even guess that?) How did she… Oh. Chara then remembered she had died, and that reality hit her like an eighteen wheeler.

(Ohmanohmanohmanohmanohman-) All Chara could do for a few more minutes was metaphorically panic. Her mind went into complete disarray and her usual ration behavior dropped.

"What am I gonna do? Ohmanohman! Frisk! Sans! Ms. Toriel! Mr. Asgore…." She choked the last name out in desperation. Was this what the afterlife consisted of? She just wanted someone by this point. An instinct told her this wasn't natural and never was supposed to be. That same instinct brought up another, hypocritical thought. There was more to live for and she couldn't let the natural happen and let her pass on. Why didn't she die? Through misted eyes, she watched the broken heart, almost expecting some type of reply from-whatever the heck it was.

The red shimmered, and the heart seemed to give a broken sigh, visibly shifting against the pitch-black backdrop. Chara let out a terrified squeak and backed away from the thing. Did it have a pulse?! Tensely, she watched it, and after a rough estimate of a minute of nothing happening, the girl's original, terrified thoughts started to fade.

Curiosity started to take over. The poor, torn….thing, looked wretched. In a bout of sympathy, the preteen reached out to absently touch it, her determination to satisfy her curiosity trickling in as well. An odd thing occurred the moment of supposed contact, the previously dark void around her flashed to life with a blinding light. Chara's eyes closed, and blinked open, and what met her eyes this time caused her to stumble. She could physically stumble back in shock as well.

Here she was, walking down the hallway to investigate a noise she had heard along with Frisk and Sans. Previously mentioned people stood behind her, as scared stiff as she remembered. Chara completely stopped, causing a chain reaction similar to a domino effect. Frisk ran into her, knocking them both over, and Sans fell into them in surprise. Again, they were in a disheveled heap, with a stunned Chara crushed at the bottom.

"C-Chara, are you alright?" Frisk asked quietly as she squirmed out of the pile. That had been an unusual action by Chara, and Frisk couldn't help but be curiously worried about Chara. A groan and glance reminded her about Sans and the little girl helped pull the skeleton off of her sister. Sans adjusted the overly large jacket he wore so it wasn't dangling so much.

Chara herself had started to get up, but had stopped halfway through, and currently was on her hands and knees and staring at one of her hands. Admittedly, she liked not being dead, who wouldn't? To suddenly come back like that would have been a shock to any person though, and this twelve year old couldn't comprehend the fact. She wasn't supposed to be here. Her time had surely ended. Even considering the slightest chance she could come back, wouldn't it have to be back- in the room up ahead? Not back a few minutes down the hall. Nature didn't support either actions of what she knew had occurred.

"chara?" A louder voice called, knocking Chara out of her reverie and making her jump. The girl slowly sat back on her legs and glanced up at the two figures dumbfoundedly. Her sister dropped to her knees and examined her. Frisk and Chara's eyes met for the longest moment, leaving Sans uncomfortable. With his grin, he glanced towards the wall nervously. Everything remained almost frozen for a moment. A tense, unsure moment of concern and nervous glances towards the end of the hall. The two younger children were starting to let their imagination run wild, with their older guide so out of sorts.

"chara? Are you alright? P-please talk to us." Sans pleaded as he came closer to becoming hysterical. Any type of acknowledgement would do for him at this point. This note of desperation brought Chara back to reality.

"Calm down, there, buddy." Chara commented dryly, shaking her head and trying to play off the weird silence. "I'm fine." Though as those words came out, she glanced away nervously. Lying didn't come quite so naturally to her. Frisk noticed the evasive facial expressions and put her hands on Chara's shoulders rather firmly. It startled her older sister into looking directly into her eyes. When Chara saw what Frisk was trying to do, the older sister's face twisted into one of the kind of determination not to tell from fear. Frisk's became a similar copy to Chara's, except it was kinder and more open. They stayed like that for a few minutes.

Squirming from where he stood already, Sans felt uncomfortable and turned away from the sisters. A tense and scared mood caused a scream to escape him as he nearly ran into something. The skeleton tried to brush it away and fell onto his rear in his panic. That gave him the view to see the true form of what he had run into. Looking up, his fear calmed and was rather soothed by the appearance of the Queen. Asgore coming to stand next to her caused Sans to release a tension filled sigh.

Toriel, with confusion written into her still somehow kind face, kneeled in front of Sans. She offered him a hand to help him off the ground. This action confused Sans momentarily, and he shook his head.

"c-chara needs you more, m-miss." He pointed a bony finger to the siblings, who had stopped their staring contest at his scream and had been watching in disbelief since. At Sans' words, Frisk jumped up and away from her sister with a vigorous nod of agreement. The little girl then moved to drag Toriel towards Chara. By this time the girl had stood up, and her eyes were darting away again; her body posture suggested she was nervous from something again. This only made Frisk's insistency and intensity become worrying to Toriel.

"Are you alright, Chara? What's going on?"

Chara couldn't find a proper answer to satisfy Toriel. She couldn't meet the nice monster's eyes nor did the child want to sound like a lunatic. For now, Chara wanted to play it off as a dream. A terrifying hallucination of her supposedly acting up hormones while she was turning into a teen.

"Well, Mrs. Toriel, we heard a really loud noise from the room up ahead." The girl played off easily, glad that her uneasiness at lying played off as the rambling of a scared child. Though she couldn't stop herself from jumping when Asgore's deep voice started.

"There was?" He placed a hand on Toriel's shoulder and shared a meaningful look with her.

"Yeah, we were going to investigate it."

"You should let us go take a look at it. Why don't you children head back?" Asgore replied, tone warmingly suggestive and calm. Behind him, Sans and Frisk were looking dubiously at Chara, though didn't raise a peep.

"S-sure, come along Frisk, Sans." Chara replied with almost expectant haste, and she carefully slipped past the monarchs to her sister and Sans. Grabbing their arms (and both Frisk and Sans noticed, with a wince, that she clenched them tightly), Chara started dragging them away. She had hoped her rush to get out of there would pass as anxiety, but it served to worry Toriel and Asgore further. They spent a moment to glance back at the retreating children.

Chara managed to drag them back to the stairs before Sans and Frisk were fed up. With a quick reassuring glance towards each other, the two dived into the pile of leaves, pulling a surprised Chara with them.

"G-guys! What was that for?!" Chara asked loudly, annoyed and startled. She sat up rather abruptly and shook the leaves off.

"you lied to them, Chara."

"Lied? I told them the entire truth, Sans! I don't understand why you would accuse me of such an action." The whole thing hadn't been a lie, but at the part of 'telling the whole truth', Chara realized her untruthful action yet again and couldn't meet Sans' eyes. Frisk, who had sat up the moment she could and had noticed Chara's actions, huffed in silent agitation and gestured violently. Sans took that cue.

"See, your lying." He replied, trying to imitate the rather dry annoyance Chara exhibited sometimes, though the rendition was poor. Chara didn't react to the imitation, and earlier she would have been annoyed and irritated beyond belief at it. Sans wasn't sure what else to do.

"c-chara, did something happen? I was sure I felt something." Frisk's eyes darted to Sans in confusion, and then back to her sister. She physically flinched at the fear visible in her older sister's eyes.

"Don't ever ask that question again!" Chara yelled, terrified at the thought that anyone might know. No, no one needed to know. Chara shook like a leaf as she turned and started walking back the way the King and Queen had come.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

The Void

[San's First Person POV]

"hey," I called out, stopping in the middle of story time. "speaking of, why are you telling the kid?" Figuring it was a simple enough question, I turned my gaze to the murderous older sibling. Something odd happened at that moment. Instead of either the hatred or the even expression I had been getting recently, I caught the slightest trace of fear in her red eyes. Was she acting, or had I just seen something? There couldn't be any possible way something scared her here. Whatever it had been, it didn't stay long, and Chara's expression quickly turned even yet again.

"...why even bother asking, you annoying sack of bones? It's none of your business, I thought you had learned that." Tensing up, I chose to simply turn away at the taunting tone. Of course I had no power here. And so far, she hadn't threatened either of us. A vague impression made me turn towards the general direction of Frisk. At her expression, I felt a wave of sympathy, she seemed confused.

"if you say so," Of course, a run of the mill response, I couldn't think of anything else better at this point. I felt exhausted by the retelling, and the prolonged presence in the Void. A stray thought came across, whether Chara knew if I couldn't stay in the Void for very long periods of time. It wasn't my ability to come here, in this form at least, after all. Only briefly pass through to another section of the actual physical space.

"I do say so." Came the response I heard with a hiss of hate. "Now let's get back to-"

The feeling that came over me next, and presumably Chara at her abrupt pause, froze me to the core. More out of my own fear, but at what? What could be in the Void that I was afraid of other than Chara? Feeling my expression turn into one with worry tinting the edges, I glanced around, remaining calm for the most part externally. After Chara's shenanigans, it was easy to hide things like that.

"Sans, go grab Frisk and I'm sending you two out of here. Stay alive for now!" Hearing that hissed out of Chara, naturally, surprised me. My head swiveled toward her, and I couldn't hide the surprise this time. It was almost like I was hearing an older version of her. Both of us the best of friends again. I knew better, that time was long gone. So what was going on?

"Sans?! Get moving, trashbag!" Seeing the agitated and murderous glint in her eyes woke me up with a shiver. At first I wanted to back away, not follow what she wanted, but a whimper from where Frisk floated stopped me. My priority became the kid, and I directed my floating towards the younger girl. Right as I got to her and put an arm around her shoulder protectively, a strange yet familiar presence filled the Void. It just didn't displace the Void nothingness either, it actually seemed to fill the nothingness around us.

I moved to put my arms around Frisk, calm externally but internally starting to panic. I couldn't place why, but this presence felt familiar, and caused some of my anxiety to spike. Chara turned away from us, looking into the Void behind her. A knife appeared in her hand, I tensed, and waited for this whole thing to be a gag by Chara. For this all to be a cruel prank played by her. The feeling of actual shifting air dashed all of my silly thoughts of this being so simple. That felt like…

Turning my head to look, behind Frisk and I was an opening back to the Underground. What game was Chara playing?

"chara, w-" And then Frisk and I fell onto the snow near my booth, the words dead in my mind at the last thing I had seen before the Void left us. Chara facing down...shoot, I couldn't remember now. It left my memory before I could even recall it. Frisk shifting in my arms brought me back to our current situation. I didn't realize how tightly I was holding her until now. I shifted into a sitting position and loosened my grip on her, allowing her to move out of my grasp. Then I watched as she stood and rubbed her arms; of course, the human was cold.

"here kid, don't want you getting a _bone-bitting_ chill." It was the first pun to come to mind, both hiding my own anxiety at the situation and the recent encounter with Chara, and hopefully giving the kid something to make her laugh. It worked, to my relief, and Frisk shook with a giggle, however hesitant it was. I stood and took off my jacket, a few other timeline memories flashing through my skull of a similar action as I handed Frisk the jacket. There weren't many memories, usually I couldn't remember anything specific, just blurs by this point (after so many timelines), but at times certain actions would jar memories into detail. Or being near Chara heightened the detail in the memories that I normally should have forgotten. She slid the jacket on, and for the umpth time, I noted how large it seemed on the kid, and she only seemed comforted by it's largeness.

"W-when are we?" I heard a soft voice ask, and again had my attention drawn to Frisk, who so rarely spoke, and the task at hand.

 _She must of been able to tell that I'm out of it._

Now when, the kid had a point, when where they? I glanced around, my booth sat to our right, the path in front of us, and...normal looking trees and snow in every direction. That didn't help with figuring out when they were. Wait….when did she know to ask when?

"kid, do you remember something?" I watched as her expression became confused, and after a tensely silent moment, the kid shook her head. With an internal sigh, I turn to head to Snowdin. "nevermind, let's head to Snowdin, It whi-

"SANS!" Welp, it wasn't a dead timeline, then. They were back in the Underground, though. Chara had pulled myself and Frisk into the Void after escaping the Underground again. The thought numbed me with the despair that it started being associated with in my head. Another failed attempt thanks to the little brat.

I waited a moment, and sure enough, Papyrus rounded the corner. Seeing him at least melted some of my emotion back into me. I was glad to see him, shoving the memories of his death aside to the best of my ability. Not so shockingly, it was easy, after doing it for so many timelines. He ran at me, I expected him to stop and look more playfully annoyed. Or, as what seemed to be ingrained in my being, for him to come after I hid Frisk behind the lamp and for him to complain and us to joke and for me to make the same pun all over again.

Instead, he didn't stop and tackled me in a hug. Letting out a slight 'umph', I fell in shock as he hugged me tightly. I noted that Papyrus was shaking slightly. Why? What a lump I felt for having to ask myself that so many times in a row.

"SANS, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU! YOU HAVEN'T BEEN HOME FOR A WEEK!" Papyrus pulled back and I saw his evident worry; the worry I hadn't noticed when he had been running towards us. A week? "WHERE'S OUR HUMAN FRIEND AS WELL?" Words couldn't find form as I processed everything. The past few minutes had been a lot of information and emotionally charged, and yet it still started to blur in my head as well. I was spared the responsibility of answering when Papyrus took notice of Frisk. He reached out and pulled her into the hug as well.

"You two just disappeared, we couldn't find you both anywhere…" Papyrus spoke in a softer tone, the worry becoming that more obvious. All I could do was stare, unsure how to respond. When were things this different, again? Had I lost some other memory of the timeline? It wouldn't surprise me if I had. No, if things were changing, I would have remembered it. Time to figure it out, then.

 **A/N: Now that summer has hit for me, my updating should become more of a weekly occurrence. Be prepared, there's a lot in store~**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Again, I do not own this universe, this is all of ideas of Toby Fox, only the plot is mine. Papyrus' normal voice being in all caps is also how I see that in writing, so I apologize in advance for anyone annoyed by that, but it will go into a normal style if he changes from his boisterous voice.**

 **But otherwise, I updated! Finally, I know. Hope you all still like Undertale with how late this update is. Enjoy~**

Chapter 8

Snowdin

Timeline: ?

[Third Person Omniscient]

Papyrus had taken them back to Snowdin, all the while keeping them within his sight. Frisk kept to Sans side (even then, she was still extremely confused, almost to the point of tears). Papyrus tried to talk to them, and Sans tried his hardest to listen, but the skeleton was finding that he was just as confused as Frisk. It frustrated and terrified him that there was no memory of this timeline; was he finally losing it? To be losing it, well, it was long overdue in Sans opinion.

"SANS?" Papyrus asked, noticing his brother was zoning out again. Sans suppressed the urge to physically jump, but did the mental equivalent as the skeleton turned his head to glance at Papyrus. "...are you alright?"

Again, Sans hid any surprise he might have felt at the tone coated in worry. He should have been the one to worry about things happening to Papyrus, not the the other way around. Sans shrugged the question off. He didn't want to reveal anything at this preliminary stage of attempting to figure everything out. It was something Sans wanted to avoid anyway.

"ya, just _boning_ out." Sans managed to find a pun to reply with. From Sans point of view, it seemed it had worked on Papyrus.

"SANS, YOU KNOW THAT WAS BAD!" The taller skeleton exclaimed, stretching it almost to the point of being over dramatic, and being his normal self at being exasperated at the pun. It gave Sans the ability to feel as if nothing had happened again, and he relaxed slightly. He even heard Frisk chuckle quietly at their antics.

"yeah, _bad to the bone_. _Tibia-nst_ -"

"UGH! I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS AFTER SO GRACIOUSLY FINDING YOU!" By this point, this behavior had relaxed Sans, hearing his brother act normally. It smoothed the atmosphere between the two skeleton brothers and there was a comfortable silence after that. They soon made it to Snowdin, and Sans quickly became aware of the side long looks a few of the other monsters directed his way. It put him on edge as Papyrus' words came back to him; he had been gone for a week, and Papyrus would have certainly done everything he could to find him.

Frisk whimpered quietly and tried to keep her gaze away from the other monsters. Sans pitied the kid, since she didn't seem to have a clue of what was going on, or at least even more so than he did. A part of him wanted to comfort her, after so many times he was familiar with her and knew it would help, but common sense told him that it would inflame the situation, since she didn't remember anything. At the least, it would weird her out, and for now, he wanted to avoid that. Unless she started exhibiting signs of a Chara possession again.

They made it back to the house (it wasn't fast enough, the smaller skeleton wasn't used to all of this attention) and Papyrus opened the door for them. Sans didn't know what he had been expecting other than going back home. As he gently guided Frisk in, he looked up to find a familiar lady sitting on the couch, sipping a drink. She abruptly set the cup down and got up to go over and take Frisk in a firm but warm hug. Frisk seemed weirded out, but accepted the hug curiously.

"GREETINGS YOUR MAJESTY!" Papyrus boisterously greeted when he entered after Sans and Frisk.

"Hello Papyrus, it's nice to see that both your brother and Frisk came back safely." The worry in her tone was obvious, and Sans couldn't hold back his surprise.

"Ma'am?" Frisk quietly spoke up curiously. "Who are you?"

"Child? Did you hit your head?" Toriel's worry heightened as she examined Frisk intensely. Sans didn't think to say anything at first, memories of Toriel sharpening, and the joking through the door. The skeleton hadn't been expecting Toriel, thus he was unprepared for the following flood of memories. It only grew larger, and Sans was forced to try and push it away with growing annoyance and distraction.

"Sans? Did something happen?" Despite her worry, Toriel's voice remained calm as she looked up to the smaller skeleton. Frisk glanced back along with the goat (who she found she rather liked). Sans glanced back from both of their gazes, hiding the knowing look he wanted to give the kid. What was he to say in this situation? Considering it seemed that him and the kid had gone missing, lying didn't seem the best course of action, but they didn't usually know too much of what went on behind their backs or when they were dead. Sans was rather content to leave it that way.

"Uh….n-nothing happened, Ms…..Toriel." Frisk spoke up again, the name being suggested to her by a voice in her head, and that same voice being insistent that the others couldn't know what was going on. Frisk, although wary, felt like she could trust this voice. The girl thought it could just be her own mind anyway. Sans hid his surprise for the time being, and instead shrugged easily for Toriel remaining silent yet again.

"You aren't telling me the whole truth, Frisk." Toriel gently retorted with a knowing look. "Sans, tell me what happened."

"i don't _ex-skull-tly_ know what you're talking about." Sans replied with a pun. Papyrus gave a groan of annoyance at how bad it was, giving Sans a reason to smile (despite how grim it seemed when he did). He figured the situation was they had somehow met Toriel along with Frisk when they both came out, it had happened a few times before. Although what had been spoken? That was the thing he was trying to gauge, and thus currently trying to play a thin line in between ignorance and what he actually knew. He watched as Toriel's expression creased, but with what emotion he could not tell. Toriel's gaze went to Papyrus next.

"Hey Papyrus, why don't you go find Undyne and tell her Sans and the human have been found, and call of the search that you mentioned was going on?"

"AH, RIGHT! I CAN TRUST THAT YOU CAN HANDLE MY BROTHER'S BAD PUNS?"

"Yes, it won't be hard." She answered with a warm chuckle of amusement.

"ALRIGHT, I'LL BE BACK, SANS." Papyrus started to turn and leave, but a sharp drop in his imaginary gut stopped him, and he glanced back at Sans. "Sans?"

"yes?" There was the tone that Sans didn't like. Without revealing anything, he turned to meet Papyrus' eye sockets.

"Please be careful." Then Papyrus left the house and a Sans left with uneasy and irrational fear that his brother knew more than he let on. Back to the former Queen. She had moved herself and Frisk over to sit on the couch, and in his generally lazy amble, Sans went to join them. He didn't quite sit with them.

"what did you want to talk about without my brother, Toriel?" Sans asked knowingly as he prepared himself, obviously already on guard, as his tone evened out even further.

"Frisk told me everything, and I want to know what actually happened." Toriel stated, that creased expression clarifying into one of knowing and coldness for Sans. It was one way the skeleton seemed to perceive it as, and he stopped cold as he got just as chillingly silent.

Time metaphorically stopped as the two monsters shared a stare. One wanting to know and help and the other wondering just what Toriel knew and if she knew anything at all. The latter also still didn't want to include anyone in this; he didn't want anyone getting hurt.

"...how much has the kid told you?" Sans eventually drawled, the lazy attitude from earlier taking on an ominous air. The skeleton was getting defensive as they wandered into an area he wasn't used to sharing. An area of change.

"She told me about you, and Chara, and attempted explaining timelines, and about everyone else when trying to stop her." Toriel waited for a response, and still didn't get one. With a sigh, the boss monster went on. "In the week you two have been missing, ive….also started remembering some of the events."

"ya know, kid…..you're making my job a whole lot harder…" Sans didn't talk towards Toriel, instead speaking to Frisk with a sigh of his own. "i'm not telling you anything, Toriel. you don't need to be involved."

"That is the exact opposite of what Frisk seemed to think. She told because she seemed worried for everyone in the Underground." Toriel insisted, and she wasn't going to back down anytime soon. A banging at the door interrupted any further arguing. Sans drifted over to answer, keeping his gaze pointedly from Toriel, attempting to put his hands into his jacket pockets and realizing he was only fishing for air. His jacket was on the kid, of course. Grillby stood waiting as Sans opened the door. His flames suggested that something bad was going on. Sans was surprised, but didn't ask. Whatever was going on had to be serious, as the few other times Grillby had come over in select timelines had been.

"Sans, who is it?" Toriel asked, standing to get a better look at the flaming monster.

"its Grillby, look, can you watch the kid? i'll be right back." Mentioned monster just seemed surprised at the guest of Toriel in the house and that Sans was willing to come without explanation. He had the common sense to remain quiet for the time being. Though he felt he came a moment too late when a few monsters screams echoed nearby, and a hug crack of a few trees signaled something had happened. Time to go.


End file.
